Dr David Humphreys
David Humphreys is an Associate Professor of Evidence-Based Intervention and Policy Evaluation. He is an interdisciplinary social scientist whose research spans several fields including:, criminology, social (or public) policy, public health, and epidemiology. His main topic of interest focuses on the causes, consequences and prevention of violence and injury. Much of his research investigates how structural changes—such as laws, regulations or changes to the built environment—impact on the rate and/or distribution of harm in the population.
David’s research typically utilises observational or non-randomised research designs. As a consequence, his research and teaching bring together an interest in methodological aspects of intervention research, such as: the design of complex interventions (natural and quasi-experiments); the measurement of physical harms and its related environmental exposures; and the assessment and synthesis of equity effects.
He joined the Department in October 2013, having previously held research positions at the Institute of Public Health and the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge. He completed his doctorate at the Institute of Criminology, at the University of Cambridge, in 2011.
David has affiliations with the Violence Research Centre at the University of Cambridge and is affiliated with the Penn Injury Science Center at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He has held research grants from the NIHR, ESRC and the Joyce Foundation, among others.
David is on sabbatical in Hilary Term 2020
David’s research interests include:
- Violence and injury prevention (including: alcohol-related violence, gun violence, knife crime, intimate partner violence, child maltreatment, suicide, motor vehicle accidents, other)
- Alcohol and drug misuse
- Changes to the built environment and urban design
- Physical inactivity
- Methods for evaluating complex population level interventions (i.e. laws, regulations, policies)
David would welcome applications for D.Phils from students who are committed to policy-relevant research on violence and injury prevention. He would be particularly interested to hear from students who are interested in examining the impact of structural level interventions, using quasi-experimental or other novel methodological designs.
Read a summary of David's work on the Oxford Social Science Division site.
